Delivery of alginate‐chitosan hydrogel promotes endogenous repair and preserves cardiac function in rats with myocardial infarction

Abstract

The regenerative potential of alginate-chitosan composite in bone and cartilage tissue has been well documented, but its potential utility in cardiac tissue engineering has remained unknown. This study sought to determine whether early intramyocardial injection of alginate-chitosan could prevent left ventricular (LV) remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI), leading to a more favorable course of tissue restoration. In a rat model of acute MI, local injection of alginate-chitosan hydrogel into the peri-infarct zone preserved scar thickness, attenuated infarct expansion, and reduced scar fibrosis after 8 weeks, concomitantly with promoting increased angiogenesis and greater recruitment of endogenous repair at the infarct zone. Furthermore, this treatment prevented cell apoptosis, induced cardiomyocyte cell cycle re-entry. The cardiac function of the control-injected animals deteriorated over the 8-week course, while that of the hydrogel-injected animals did not.In addition, the hydrogel did not exacerbate inflammation in the heart. Intramyocardial injection of alginate-chitosan hydrogel represents a useful strategy to treat MI. It demonstrated marked therapeutic efficacies on various tissue levels after extensive MI, as well as potential to induce endogenous cardiomyocyte proliferation and recruit cardiac stem cells.

Sustained Release of a Peptide-Based Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 Inhibitor to Attenuate Adverse Cardiac Remodeling and Improve Cardiac Function Following Myocardial Infarction

“…38, 39 Wall thickness was calculated from H&E staining using Image J. 40 Thickness of five different fields was measured for each sample. The relative thickness of the infarcted area was calculated as the ratio of thickness at infarcted area to that of normal area.…”

Injectable Hydrogels for Cardiac Tissue Repair after Myocardial Infarction

“…Some specific examples include ECM-fibrin hydrogels, [105] alginate-chitosan hydrogels, [106] and ECM-polyethylene glycol hydrogels. [107] Due to the benefits of both fibrin and alginate as biomaterials for injectable hydrogels, a composite of these materials was used for cardiac repair after MI.…”

Recovery of oxidative stress-induced damage in Cisd2-deficient cardiomyocytes by sustained release of ferulic acid from injectable hydrogel

“…Injectable chitosan-based hydrogels have been widely used as drug or cell delivery vehicles for treating cardiac diseases in vitro and in vivo [32,[44][45][46][47]. The biocompatibility of C/GP-based hydrogel has been demonstrated in an animal model [46,47].…”